One mom's attempt at maintaining a little slice of sanity in a house full of boys...

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Well, That Was Quick!

Just a quick update. I may have mentioned - if not in a blog post, then in my comments to some of you - that we received contradictory discharge papers from the ER re: Son #3's sutures. One sheet said to have the stitches removed in 7-10 days (that's also what the ER doc said). Another sheet said the stitches should remain in "no longer than 5 days." The pediatrician's office said 3-5 days.

I dunno, 3-5 days just seemed kind of short, but his chin is healing really, really well. We made an appointment to see the doc today (yes, it's Saturday, but that's when they suggested we come in). He said it would be fine to removed the stitches today so we did.

Again, Son #3 (who generally isn't very cooperative) was amazing. It didn't hurt him at all - an advantage to taking them out sooner, rather than later. We're instructed to keep it covered with a bandaid a while longer, primarily to protect it from being bumped.

Apparently, according to the doc, there's less scarring if the sutures are removed within 5 days, rather than leaving them in for 10. If the wound isn't quite healed, they'll often remove the sutures and replace them with Steri-Strips (butterfly tape) for another week. Son #3 didn't need that.

9 comments:

Well at least the stitches are out and he will be fine now. I hate when the medical professional contradicts themselves...what's the average person to do? I hope he stays stitch free from now on. Have a great day.

You are so right, nadine! Who are you supposed to trust? I spoke w/ parents whose kids had similar injuries and they were just as contradictory: "I'd go w/ the ER doc since he knows how deep your son's wound was." versus "I'd go with the pediatrician since he sees these things all the time." Dear Hubby's friend is a prediatrician - he's the one who removed the sutures, but only because I was comfortable with how the wound looked. Plus I could fuss at him at church if I thought he goofed! (Seriously, though, we'll switch to his practice *after* I receive the immunization records I need to register Son #3 in kindergarten from his current pediatrician's office).

Lala, I was okay for the most part. I stared at the pain chart on the wall with the smiley/frowney faces. Occasionally I'd peek over at what the doc was doing, but I tried to time it so that I wouldn't actually see the needle going in or coming out of his skin. Ewwwwww....

Hi Nikki! Good to see you again. I do pop into your blog fairly frequently but I don't always have the time to comment.

Hi ~d. You have your tilde, I have my asterisk. :-) Love the heart in the comment. How'd you do that? We're doing pretty good, busy, you know how it is... Hugs to your boys!

sue, at the prices they charge, is a little consensus too much to ask? ;-)

About Me

I'm woefully outnumbered! I'm a married mom of 3 boys. I work part-time at a law office, and full time+ at home. Even our three dogs are male.
I'm college educated (two degrees that I'm not using), and *still* trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.